EARTHRISE:
Beacon of a New Worldview
Keynote slideshow - PowerPoint slideshow.
On December 24th, 1968, astronauts on Apollo 8 took a photograph that would change collective human consciousness forever.
Why was "Earthrise" so important? As mythologist Joseph Campbell explained to Bill Moyers during the Power of Myth interviews:
CAMPBELL: ...The only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is one that is talking about the planet, not the city, not these people, but the planet, and everybody on it. And what it will have to deal with will be exactly what all myths have dealt with—the maturation of the individual, from dependency through adulthood, through maturity, and then to the exit; and then how to relate to this society and how to relate this society to the world of nature and the cosmos...But the society that it's got to talk about is the society of the planet. And until that gets going, you don't have anything.
MOYERS: So you suggest that from this begins the new myth of our time?
CAMPBELL: Yes, this is the ground of what the myth is to be. It's already here: the eye of reason, not one of nationality; the eye of reason, not of my religious community; the eye of reason, not of my linguistic community. Do you see? And this would be the philosophy for the planet, not for this group, that group, or the other group. When you see the earth from the moon, you don't see any divisions there of nations or states. This might be the symbol, really, for the new mythology to come. That is the country that we are going to be celebrating.
Many cultures tell myths and legends about a primal Mother Nature, of course: Gaia, Terra, Changing Woman, Ala, Nerthus, and many other names and faces for the sacred presence around us. But until our time, none of our images of Earth could encapsulate more than a region or a small group of people. No one had ever seen Earth in all its glorious entirety, whole beyond any divisions of regions, borders, or territories. "Earthrise" did not create a vision of collective participation and interconnection so much as announce it in one stunning image.
Worldviews matter because they provide a framework upon which we hang our perceptions, values, biases, ideals, and behaviors. Personal worldviews shape how we live, what we think of ourselves and each other, where we work and why, where we live, what we stand for, what we see and what we project. Collective worldviews shape entire eras.
Evidence for a new worldview implicit in Earthrise have sprung up everywhere: in ecology, environmentalism, networks, hubs, Internet, theories of information, transmission across borders, sustainability, permaculture, post-colonial sovereignty, indigenous science, and other expressions of the rise of unified Earth into collective human consciousness. As the outworn worldviews of mechanism, traditionalism, fundamentalism, and consumerism break down from age and overuse, Earthrise heralds the time when we fashion deeper relationships with ourselves, each other, and the living planet below and all around us.
Contact me if you're interested in joining our growing Earthrise discussion. An effects-rich copy of the slideshow is available upon request. (See also "What is Encyclopedia Sophia?")
- Craig Chalquist, PhD